THE NOTE TELLER AND CITY COLLECTIONS Classification of Items for Collection Purposes A bank receives a great variety of items which are claims against other parties and which it proceeds to collect from these debtors. For the purpose of collection the items are divided into classes according to three principles: I. Whether or not the item can be treated as cash.
2. Where the debtor lives.
3. Whether the volume and characteristics of the item war rant separate handling.
The collection of each class is then, in a large bank, assessed upon a distinctive department. The following table will illus trate the ordinary division: The operations of these various collection systems will be treated in this and following chapters.
General Functions of the Note Teller In general, the department of the note, or third, teller is closely related to the departments handling correspondence, collections, and discounts. In most banks one of the note teller's primary functions is to make collections of notes in the city and account for the proceeds received, such collections being made for the dis count department, for customers, and occasionally for non depositors. But the collection, also, of the city items other than notes usually devolves upon him. As the volume of work in the department becomes large, certain branches of it are turned over to specialized departments: The note teller's department is the parent of the messengers' department, the city collection depart ment, and the coupon collection department. The apportion ment of functions among the offspring departments and the original note teller's department differs greatly in the different banks. In a very large hank, messengers may be assigned to the discount department, which then makes its own city collections. The same is true of the coupon collection department.
The note teller receives and is made responsible for funds from numerous sources. These funds include items coming in by mail or express or over his window, from depositors and non depositors, for collection in the city or country; credits with cash offset from other departments; deposits requiring special advice; payments for exchange charges; payments for rent of offices in the bank building; etc.
In every bank there are many odds and ends of a banking or non-banking nature for the performance of which either a special department is created or a parcellation is made among existing departments or an allocation upon a single existing department.
A common arrangement is to assign such work to the note teller. Such an arrangement tends to less confusion, for it permits a higher specialization of the other departments and a reduction of their fewer functions to a more stereotyped routine. It also results in fixing definite responsibility for the performance of an heterogeneous group of operations. Some of the miscellaneous duties commonly assessed upon the note teller are the issue of certificates of deposit; the care of remittances not having proper instructions; the care of canceled vouchers returned on account of forged, missing,or wrong indorsements; the transfer of funds by telegraph; the purchase of rare coins for the bank or for customers or others; the payment of notes for non-depositors; the receipt of the registered and special delivery mail; the delivery of mortgages, deeds, or valuable papers against payment or receipts; etc.
Since the functions of the note teller are so miscellaneous, it is difficult to apportion them among clerks on any one principle of division, and so the clerks handle more or less unrelated lines. Some of the functions, for instance, may be divided among a transfer-of-funds window, a note collection window, a registered mail division, a credit journal desk, a transfer desk, and a note entry desk; and the note teller and the assistant note teller may take certain lines of the work under their especial care.
Handling of Notes for Collection Notes for collection are received in the note teller's department from various sources: by express, registered and special delivery mail, over the counter, and from the mail department, city col lection department, and foreign division. Those not received from other departments are entered individually in a blotter, with a page for each day's receipts, and columns for the letter date and address, indorser, collection item number, due date, whether protestable, where payable, amount, and special in structions. Maturity dates are next written with a blue pencil upon the face of each note. The notes are then entered in note registers: (f) the owners' book, that is, under the name of the depositor, and (2) the makers' or acceptors' book, under the name of the maker or acceptor; these two books form a cross-index for ready reference to the note.